Hi There

Looks like you've stumbled on my humble homepage. And that, over there, would be my first home.

Glorious, right?

As a teen, I shoveled its sidewalks, mowed its lawns, and generally snuck in and out like I owed it money. But as a kid, those bricks and windows composed the perimeter of an intergalactic HQ. I built forts, tinkered with invisible force fields, and survived countless alien offensives.*

I'm thankful for that house as those long afternoons of play established the foundation for today's.

You might know I write. You might know I founded Armed Mind. You might even know I support non-profits.

But I'm really just doing what I did then.
Call it "creative."

I still think of it as pretend.

*I swear, I'm not that anti-social. In fact, say hi! But with immigrant parents who worked overtime and a brother eight years my senior, pretend was just the natural thing to do when I was on my own (ESPN, WWW., and HDTV were still random assortments of letters).

Releases

"V.E.R.S.I.O.N. - A Simulated Cognitive Compatibility Assessment"

Read Now - Pwd: BLUEBIRD
April, 2015
Digital Book

Description:
Thanks to easing restrictions on gene therapy, Coalescence Corporation has revolutionized human augmentation.

Tweaked DNA is the new normal, and if you don’t agree, you’ve already fallen behind.

Told through two unique perspectives across two eras, V.E.R.S.I.O.N., or Virtual Evaluation of Response Similarities in Organic Networks, compares two individuals’ eligibility for employment with Coalescence Corporation using the future of job interviews: a comparative brain scan.

Released on Tumblr, V.E.R.S.I.O.N. is the first story of its kind, housing an ebook, real-time data analysis, medical documents, and a 3D dynamic database in an internal corporate report that will transport users to two eras, two brains, and two unforgettable perspectives on an uncertain future.

An exclusive digital book to reveal Call of Duty: Black Ops 3

"Devil's Breath"

November, 2013
Activision Blizzard Publishing

Description:
Before a devastating orbital strike crippled its government and set the stage for invasion, the United States military relied on a top-secret unit of special operatives known only by their codename:

The Ghosts.

But when their leader and commanding officer, Captain Gabriel Rorke, is captured deep in South America at the hands of the Federation, it's his place atop the highly-trained, off-books unit that makes him the highest-priority enemy combatant in American history.

Exclusively published on Kindle and Kindle devices, "Devil's Breath" buries readers underground with Rorke as he struggles to survive years of captivity, a victim of not only chemical, psychological, and physical torture methods perfected by the CIA but ancient Amazonian methods of coercion, fused by Federation forces with one goal in mind…

Reprogram America's greatest weapon into its greatest threat.

"Rightful King"

November, 2012
Activision Blizzard Publishing

Description:
Decades before a second Cold War brings the world to the brink of annihilation, a thirteen-year-old boy stands in an alley, covered in blood. In his lifetime, he'll come to be known by many names. Radical. Rebel. Revolutionary.

But all will know him as Raul Menendez.

"Rightful King" catapults readers on a journey from the violent streets of 1980's Nicaragua to the boroughs of New York as Menendez forages for food, rises through the ranks of his father's drug cartel, and ultimately forms a diabolical plan that will change the world forever.

Results:
In addition to a host of awards, "Rightful King" reached #15 in the Kindle eBooks Store, spending 10 days on Amazon's global "Best Seller" list, holding three #1 positions, and ultimately becoming the most successful short story based on a video game in history -- despite only being available for two months.

Fiction

Short

“Three Movements” (The Collagist)
“147” (Nanoism)
“Lactaids” (PANK)

Long

““It Is What It Is(n’t)”” (Novel, Forthcoming)
“Lockboxed” (Novella, Forthcoming; Glimmer Train Honorable Mention)
“The Whispering King” (Novel, 2006 Hopwood Award)

Non

Feature/Interview - Forbes - “What Marketers Can Learn From The Gaming Guru”
(Forbes)
“Writing the Great American Novel Video Game”
(Forthcoming: Creative Composition, Cengage 2013; Originally published in Fiction Writers Review)
“The Age of Binary Bookmaking” (Fiction Writers Review)
“Now or Never - An Open Letter to Literally Everyone” (Huffington Post)

“A Breakup Letter to McDonald’s” (The Huffington Post)

“On Not Bonking” (The Huffington Post)

“From Hemingway to Twitterature: The Short and Shorter of It” (The Journal of Electronic Publishing)

Reviews

“The Forbidden Thought: A review of Zone One, by Colson Whitehead” (Fiction Writers Review)
“Stories We Love: Refresh Refresh by Ben Percy” (Fiction Writers Review)
“Best of the Web 2010, edited by Kathy Fish and Matt Bell” (Fiction Writers Review)
“The Iron Will of Shoeshine Cats, by Hesh Kestin” (Fiction Writers Review)

Bio

It wouldn’t be “official” without some pompous, authoritative 3rd-person “biography,” so here’s something wiki-worthy:

“Michael Rudin is the best-selling author of RIGHTFUL KING, a Kindle Exclusive that reached #15 worldwide (smack between Hunger Games and Fifty Shades of Grey) and earned “Best Original Content” recognition at that year's Game Developers Conference. Michael is also the author of two other Call of Duty prequels—DEVIL’S BREATH and, V.E.R.S.I.O.N.—as well as a recipient of a Hopwood Award for the Novel from the University of Michigan. As the founder of Armed Mind, a creative agency specializing in product narratives, his writing has been recognized by The Webby Awards and Game Marketing Awards. His essays have appeared or are forthcoming in the textbook Creative Composition, The Journal of Electronic Publishing, and Fiction Writers Review, where he lends a hand directing marketing and development. What time he has left, he invests in training the 13 lb. pup he found trolling the streets of Los Angeles.”

Over the last few years, Armed Mind has grown from an army of one (me!) to a battalion of many: a team of writers, designers, producers, directors, and programmers sprinkled from New York to Los Angeles. Some of us have mustaches. Most don’t.

What we do have in common is a dedication to storytelling and narrative. We were recognized for that dedication with Gold at the Game Marketing Awards in our first year of operations, and by the likes of Mashable, Forbes, and a Cannes Lion since.

Short form and long. TV and digital video. Printed and electronic narratives. Experiences across digital, social and IRL. Regardless of medium or channel, every campaign tells a story, and we help our clients tell theirs perfectly.

Learn more.

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Accepting hello’s, well wishes, admissions of guilt, and love notes here: